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No e-commerce websites in India accept Bitcoins, but many Indian enthusiasts use the payment system for trade of goods and services from overseas websites. Many online stores offer discounts for Bitcoin payments to increase their coin holding for future gains.
The huge demand for Bitcoins in India has largely been from speculators hoping to gain from the rising value of the currency. How Bitcoins Are Minted In a traditional economy, a central authority issues currency. But Bitcoins can be created by anyone by mining. It's a bit like digging for gold. Bitcoins are small blocks of data hidden in a huge amount of irrelevant data. To get Bitcoins, one has to take the entire chunk of data, rearrange it, and process it through a set algorithmic functions - in other words, 'hash' it - until the desired result is found.
The first person to find it owns the block - currently 25 Bitcoins. Luck plays an important role in solving the 'puzzle', or rearranging the raw data into the pattern that yields the right result. You don't need to be a geek to mine. The software, freely available, does everything automatically.
What you do need, though, is powerful hardware and money to pay for the power the machines consume. Nilam Doctor, Ahmedabad-based software professional and Bitcoin investor, has developed a trading platform for the virtual currency. As mining activity increases, and as more coins are discovered, the difficulty level of mining rises. Going back to our gold analogy, the more gold we mine, the harder we need to work to extract the remaining gold. In the early days of Bitcoins, the puzzles were easy enough for even personal computers.
Until recently, Bangalore-based Bitcoin enthusiast Benson Samuel mined the currency using a botnet, or a network of computers that run applications. He is referring to graphics processing units, or computers designed to run graphics-heavy applications such as video games.
He also used personal computers. I know a lot of gamers, which helped," says Samuel.
As the Bitcoin block reward continues to halve, the value of Bitcoin is predicted to increase. In some ways, the X is a wiser investment for those looking for the best bang for the buck. Even though the network hash rate will cause your share of the network hash power to go down, the Bitcoin price can help make up some of these losses. You can start to earn free. See this question for some more help: bitcoin. Buy Bitcoin Worldwide, nor any of its owners, employees or agents, are licensed broker-dealers, investment advisers, or hold any relevant distinction or title with respect to investing.
But the rising value of Bitcoins has prompted miners to use powerful computers. The puzzles have become more difficult, too, to control the number of coins that are generated. So low-powered computers now take longer to win a block, which means higher electricity costs. He has now disbanded most of his botnets, and is awaiting delivery of a computer designed to mine Bitcoins.
The computer, made by Butterfly Labs, one of the few manufacturers of specialised hardware for Bitcoin mining, uses applicationspecific integrated circuits that hugely increase its processing power and energy efficiency. Samuel says he has invested around Rs 1 lakh in the machine, and is unwilling to disclose its processing power. The machines are selling like hot cakes.
Based on current Bitcoin valuation and puzzle complexity, these machines can pay for themselves in a few weeks. Yes, there is a catch: once these machines start participating in mining activity, the complexity of the hash algorithms will go up. The Dark Side Digital cryptographic currencies are new, and there are not enough regulations governing them.
Mining, buying and selling Bitcoins is not illegal in India, but it is not recognised by law either, and their taxability is a question mark. Should that free people from tax liability on income and from laws that regulate financial transactions? Money-laundering is a threat, as is illegal trade. Silk Road, an online trading website for illegal drugs, uses Bitcoins. Since Bitcoin transactions are irreversible, scammers and fraudsters find them useful. Monetary regulators are waking up to the reality of Bitcoins.
In March, the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network said a money transmitter's licence would be required to sell or exchange Bitcoins, although they can still be freely used to pay for goods and services. Traditional financial institutions such as banks are yet to enter the Bitcoin arena. Bitcoin Foundation's Vessenes is optimistic that they will accept Bitcoins this year or the next. All this advocacy is great, and some of it will flower eventually. If someone could control 51 per cent of the total computing power in the Bitcoin ecosystem, for instance, they could manipulate it to retrieve the money already spent.
Thankfully, such a scenario is unlikely, and playing by the rules is rewarding. Another risk is that Bitcoin apps which serve as the backbone of the system could malfunction. Recently, an incompatibility between two versions of the mining software resulted in a company losing a lot of Bitcoins. Bitcoin Cash. Mining Hardware see all. Hash Algorithm see all.
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